Bahrain arrests photographer who documented dissent

New
York, January 9, 2013--Bahraini authorities should drop charges they have filed
against a photojournalist in connection with his coverage of anti-government
protests in April, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Police arrested Ahmed Humaidan on December 29 and charged him with "demonstrating
illegally" and "using violence to assault police and damage public properties" during
the demonstrations on the island of Sitra, where Humaidan lived, according to news reports. Against the
backdrop of Bahrain's Formula
One race last April, several thousand protesters demonstrated against human
rights violations by the government, news reports said.

Humaidan,
a freelance photographer, has covered
protests in the country since the 2011 uprising. His photographs have been published by local opposition
sites including the online newsmagazine
Alhadath and the online news site Alrasid.

Humaidan's family members told CPJ that the
journalist had been in custody for more than a week, but that they were
allowed to see him for only a half-hour on Sunday. They said Humaidan was not
granted access to his lawyer. News accounts reported that the
photographer is scheduled to be in the High Criminal Court of Al-Wasta province
on January 15.

Adel
Marzouk, head of the Bahrain Press
Association,
an independent media freedom organization based in London, told CPJ that Humaidan's photographs had often exposed police attacks on
protesters during demonstrations. Humaidan's family said that authorities had
sought his arrest for months and had raided their home five times in recent
months in an attempt to arrest him, news reports said.

Bahrain
has restricted critical reporting and independent news coverage since the
uprising in 20111. Despite King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa's pledge to uphold
press freedom and reform, conditions have not improved. A journalist was detained for months
after criticizing a proposed union between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and a
well-known videographer was killed while
filming a pro-reform protest in March of last year.

"We
are very concerned about the detention of Ahmed Humaidan, who has documented
official abuses by Bahraini police against protesters," said CPJ's Middle East
and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "The Bahraini government has consistently
targeted journalists in an effort to suppress such coverage. We call for Humaidan's
immediate release."

The
Arab Network for Human Rights, a regional human rights organization, said on Sunday that
Bahraini authorities had taken several steps against journalists in recent
months in order to suppress coverage of protests. The organization cited Humaidan's
arrest, as well as the arrest of photographer Mazen Mahdi and the denial
of entry to U.S. journalist Nicholas Kristof.